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Bar owner's case goes up in smoke...I think
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Fat Tony from The Simpsons
The state paid $60,000 to prosecute a man who was ticketed last year for allowing smokers to light up at his bar amid the statewide ban on smoking in most places, reports said today.
A jury found the owner of Murray Street Darts in Colorado Springs guilty of breaking the state law, following what some are calling the longest-ever court case for a petty offense. He’s now responsible for paying the $200 fine, and his court costs.
According to reports, the bar owner was allowing smokers to pollute the air in his bar by purchasing $1 ashtrays, and two officers issued him a ticket upon discovering it in March, 2007.
The case was taken all the way to the state supreme court on pre-trial issues. The bar owner is apparently a longtime and loud opponent of the state’s clean air act.
When asked why he fought the case, he answered that he was "fighting for small business."
Note to this man: You don’t get to break the law because it’s “good for business.” If that were the case, our chambers of commerce would be run by the likes of Fat Tony.
Now don’t get me wrong. I haven’t overlooked the ridiculousness of the fact the state spent near twice what I make in a year to collect its $200, but I’m more mad that this limp-lungs forced them to do it.
As this man opens up his checkbook to pay his fine, I certainly won’t play him some violin music.
I’ll leave him with this instead.
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